The Lions' culture has changed for the better under Dan Campbell and the rest of Detroit's new coaching staff. According to former All-Pro receiver Steve Smith, the sideline tongue-lashing that Jeff Okudah received from DB's coach Aubrey Pleasant in the team's season-opening loss to the 49ers is proof that the culture has changed for the 'worse.'
Smith, now an analyst for NFL Network, went out of his way to bring up the incident in a video conference Tuesday when asked about the Bears' approach to developing rookie QB Justin Fields.
"I think it kind of goes to something that we need to address," Smith said, via the Free Press. "The DB coach or the pass coordinator for the Detroit Lions, how he was dog cussing that third overall pick with the Detroit Lions. I thought that’s interesting. We can say we want to take and handle Justin Fields with delicate hands, but we’re going to dog cuss the DB?"
Prior to Okudah's season-ending Achilles injury Sunday, Smith said the Lions were setting him up to fail by asking him to play so much man-to-man coverage.
"That young man obviously is in over skis," Smith said. "He can't cover people man-to-man. Why in the hell are the Detroit Lions putting that man in man-to-man coverage? They need to protect him the same way they need to protect a quarterback because we all know if the way that coach was talking to him, if Jeff would have responded in a way that ... they’d be suspending (him) and saying that player is detrimental."
TV cameras caught Pleasant laying into Okudah, while holding a tablet in one hand and pointing in Okudah's face with the other, after the former third overall pick blew an assignment on a 38-yard touchdown run by 49ers rookie Elijah Mitchell in the second quarter of Detroit's 41-33 loss. Smith said "we need to start calling some of these coaches out to show that you can’t expect us players to be a certain way and then you not be that certain way."
"We need to stop upping our standards for players and lowering our standards for coaches," he said. "We need to have them on the same playing field. We need to start revoking some of these dumb-ass coaches’ opportunities because that sh*t show they got in Detroit, it’s a train wreck waiting to happen and I’m sitting there, got my popcorn waiting for it."
Internally, Pleasant has drawn nothing but rave reviews since joining the Lions in the offseason. His players have praised his energy in practice and his smarts in the film room, none more consistently than Okudah who said in training camp that "me and coach Pleasant are a match made in heaven." When Okudah was beaten by 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel for a 79-yard touchdown later in Sunday's game, Pleasant was seen comforting Okudah on the sideline in a forehead-to-forehead embrace.
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Campbell has lightened the mood around the Lions after the oppressive three-year reign of Matt Patricia, allowing his players to enjoy themselves at work. But Smith later told the Free Press, “Man, I don’t believe in that culture change they keep barking about. It’s worse. Their actions don’t follow through."
Okudah, 22, struggled in his rookie season with the Lions, in part due to injuries. Now he's been hit with one of the most brutal injuries in football. It's a long road back from a ruptured Achilles, and most players are never the same. Smith is one of the few exceptions. He suffered a double ruptured Achilles at age 36 in his penultimate season, and returned the next year with 70 catches for 799 yards.
Smith said the challenge for Okudah, on top of the obvious physical one, will be forgetting the exchange with Pleasant that now defines his second NFL season.
"Jeff is going to embark on nine months of mental anguish. And now every time he remembers his 2021 season, that’s what he’s going to pull up," Smith told the Free Press. "How do you think that’s going to play out? ... And then Coach is going to try to hug it out to say, 'Hey, man, my bad.' I just find that, man, it’s just tough. I really think that’s tough, and we talk about culture with the Detroit Lions, and I want to ask the Detroit Lions is that a culture change?"
Smith said he's rooting for Okudah to recover, with one caveat.
"I hope he comes back, personally, just because of my mental makeup. I hope he comes back and kills it, bro. Just destroys it. Like, he becomes that corner that they all hope he would be," Smith said. "But here’s the caveat, I hope not in Detroit, bro."